This invention relates to a method of manufacturing structural bodies. More particularly, it relates to a method of manufacturing load-bearing objects, including furniture with lightweight sheet materials such as corrugated cardboard and bars made of bamboo, wood, plastic, or other materials.
The use of corrugated laminates in the development of both furniture and load bearing articles has existed for some time. The advantages to using such materials are that they are relatively inexpensive and extremely lightweight. Of course the disadvantages are obvious as well in that the material can only be used in certain environments. The material is not suitable for outdoor furniture. Through the years, a variety of techniques have been utilized to construct load bearing articles of furniture from corrugated cardboard as well as other similar lightweight materials. Most of the prior art of which Applicant is aware provide for the use of structural elements which are die cut from larger sheets of these materials. These structural elements are combined in some manner to create the whole structure.
The prior art to which Applicant refers is suitable for the mass production of the furniture as well as the storage, shipment, and ultimate sale of the furniture in a knocked-down or non-constructed embodiment. Such furniture is intended to be assembled or otherwise built by a purchaser who having little skill and a minimum of tools can successfully build the furniture by following assembly instructions. Specific references of which Applicant is aware which utilize this technology are:
All of the articles described by this prior art include blanks which must be folded to form various panels and support structures which are interlinked by means of slots.
Folding of corrugated materials, however, increase the likelihood that the material may rupture or suffer from some other distorting force at that point. Furthermore, all of this prior art has some provision to cover the interlocking elements with panels of folded, tabbed, and slotted blanks, and/or some form of upholstery, in an attempt to make the article more conventional, and thus more aesthetically pleasing. The required folds further limit the covering sheets to a thickness of of only one such corrugated sheet, because multiple sheets, though stronger, would have an even greater propensity to rupture or distort along the fold. A single sheet of corrugated material placed perpendicular to and overlapping a plurality of interspaced, perpendicularly interlocking sheets of like material arranged into an egg crate divider type assembly is subject to failure over the interstices of the interlocking sheets. This would of course negate the original intent of creating an aesthetically pleasing flat surface.
Another invention which utilizes lightweight corrugated materials is Gehry U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,615. Gehry describes an article different from those described above in that Gehry provides a plurality of elements which are cut into certain desired patterns and shapes, and laminated into a continuous structure. Gehry prefers to laminate each sheet perpendicular to the next sheet with respect to the corrugated portion or flutes within each sheet, though he claims this is not necessary. Regardless of the manner in which the Gehry structure is created, the external appearance of the structure is of a continuous laminate extending over the entire structure.
The applicant provides in the present invention an improvement to the prior art using a method of manufacturing load-bearing objects, including furniture with lightweight sheet materials such as corrugated cardboard in combination with bars made of bamboo, wood, plastic or other lightweight materials which do not succumb to the limitations of the interlinked and folded materials such as corrugated cardboard. The applicant incorporates bars of lightweight material into the design of the present invention to add structural strength to the objects and also to improve the aesthetics of the manufactured objects.
The present invention is directed to a method of constructing furniture and to items of furniture constructed by this method incorporating lightweight sheet materials and bars of lightweight material. An article of furniture built by such a method would comprise a plurality of laminated components including beam elements and connector elements along with bars of other lightweight materials. Each beam element and connector element being a portion of sheet material cut out of a greater sheet of such material and laminated into a beam element or a connector element. A plurality of such beam elements, connector elements and bars are connected together to form the article of furniture. The laminated beam elements and connector elements can be constructed to be load-bearing. The lengths and diameters of the bars can be selected to be load-bearing. The present invention method of manufacturing furniture and other structures by combining a plurality of the beam elements, connector elements and bars in an unlimited number of configurations provides durable furniture which is not only functional structurally but aesthetically appealing in appearance. This method is also readily adapted to use in the creation of sculpture, other works of art, and other items which do not require the structural integrity of furniture but would benefit from the aesthetic appearance of this method of constructing objects.
In some embodiments of the furniture manufactured using the method of the present invention, the sheet material from which the beam elements are constructed comprise laminated cardboard, each of the beams of the corrugated laminates are slotted, grooved or notched, and are interlocked in such a way so as to expose the outer edges of the corrugated laminates forming a skeletal structure. The planes formed by the outer edges of the corrugated laminates run perpendicular to the direction of the load, or in the case of a non-load bearing structure, the planes formed by the outer edges of the corrugated laminates run perpendicular to the direction of view, and are used to define the outer edges of the structure.
Therefore it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing lightweight, sturdy and durable furniture from sheet materials by laminating a number of such materials together to form structurally sound beam elements which are then utilized in combination with bars of other lightweight materials to construct the article of furniture.
Some embodiments of the furniture and other objects manufactured using the method of the present invention include lightweight bars of materials such as bamboo, wood, plastic among others. Bars of various diameters and lengths, depending on the particular embodiment are incorporated into the designs for structural support as well as aesthetics. In some embodiments, a plurality of bars are inserted through tabulated apertures appropriately sized, depending on the diameter of the bar, to frictionally secure the bar to the beam element at the desired location of the bar relative to the beam. In other embodiments, the bars can be inserted through larger cut-outs in a portion of the beams providing no support to the structure.
The lightweight bars can be joined together in various configurations using either fiber cords to lash two or more bars together or by inserting to or more bars into cut-outs or slots in laminated connector elements. The laminated connector elements can be manufactured using the materials and methods utilized to construct the beam elements. The connector elements can be designed to be load bearing or non-load bearing depending on the design of the furniture or structure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an aesthetically pleasing article of furniture by utilizing the property of corrugated cardboard aesthetically while more importantly utilizing this same property to provide the necessary structural integrity to support the load the furniture is intended to bear. In some embodiments the lightweight bars are incorporated into the designs of the furniture and other objects in such a way to support the load the particular object is designed to carry with the bars rather than the beam elements.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing furniture by utilizing a skeletal framework of beam elements along with the lightweight bars which can by themselves comprise the finished article of furniture or could alternatively be upholstered.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an additional use for oftentimes waste sheet materials such as corrugated cardboard, wood and plastic laminates, and other sheet materials which can be cut, notched and fastened to form useful articles of furniture which at the end of their lifetimes can be returned to the recyclable waste stream to be utilized for other purposes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide furniture such as a table, a magazine rack, or room divider among others which are lightweight, sturdy, and rigid made of a plurality of laminated beams and a plurality of lightweight bars. Each beam comprises a plurality of otherwise non rigid corrugated cardboard elements, wherein the lamination of a plurality of such elements provides the rigidity to the beam and the combination of the beams and bars provides the rigidity to the furniture without sacrificing the lightweight characteristics.
Another object of the present invention is to provide furniture and other objects made of a plurality of laminated beams of corrugated cardboard elements and a plurality of lightweight bars wherein the elements of the objects are treated with moisture repellant, sealer, polyurethane or other preservative to provide greater durability and longevity to the products.
Another object of the present invention is to provide furniture and other objects made of a plurality of laminated beams of corrugated cardboard elements and a plurality of lightweight bars wherein the skeletal framework of the beams and bars combine to provide an aesthetically pleasing appearance while providing the necessary structure to allow the furniture to function.